N°11, 6th November 2008
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Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7)
Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)
Tenders Electronic Daily (TED)
The EARTO Executive Board met in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on October 23rd and 24th at the invitation of the Josef Stefan Institute.
The meeting featured a seminar with the Slovenian Minister for Research and other government decision makers on the role of RTOs in supporting national economic and social development.
The Board business meeting was honoured with the visit of European Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik, who shared his views with the Board on the impact of the current financial and economic crisis on business and R&D investment as well as on the future development of the European Research Area (ERA) and the role of RTOs in ERA.
Among the business discussed by the Board were proposals for an EARTO Innovation Prize, for an RTO Yearbook as well as plans for the EARTO annual conferences in 2009 and 2010.
The Board also made a declaration expressing its concern at the introduction of funding caps on overhead costs in Joint Technology Initiatives (see article below).
If you are currently experiencing an ex-post audit of an FP6 project, or have been informed that you will be audited shortly, you may wish to contact the EARTO Secretariat for advice.
As reported in earlier issues of EARTO News, the European Commission is increasing the number of ex-post audits of closed FP6 projects.
Several EARTO members have been audited already. For time being, it is larger RTOs which are being targeted, but other RTOs are likely to be audited soon.
These audits are proving extremely problematic because the auditors and the Commission are challenging cost reimbursement practices which previously the Commission had accepted, in particular relating to the use of average personnel costs as well as the inclusion of overhead in daily rates. Some RTOs have been told that they may be required to reimburse large sums of money to the Commission.
EARTO has formed a Task Force of affected members - comprising senior financial managers and senior legal personnel - to monitor the situation, to exchange information, to develop a common position towards the Commission on specific audit issues, and to consider the legal and political options available to challenge the Commission, if necessary.
For further information, please contact Christopher John Hull
Two Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) which have launched their first Calls for Proposals this year - the Innovative Medicines JTI (IMI) and the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen JTI (FCH) - have introduced funding models which limit the reimbursement of overhead costs to 20% of direct costs. Moreover, the Commission has indicated that it intends to generalise this 20% cap on overheads to all future JTIs.
Such unrealistic capping is unacceptable and counter-produtive. It displays grave ignorance of the economic realities of research. RTOs have overhead costs equivalent, typically, to 100%-150% or more of direct project costs.
The EARTO Executive Board has recently released a declaration calling on the Commission to revise its policy, and the EARTO Secretariat is in contact with other European associations and groupings representing universities and industrial interests with the objective of concerting efforts to obtain realistic funding models for JTI-sponsored research.
The Structural and Cohesion Funds are the European Union’s main instruments for supporting social and economic restructuring across the EU. They account for over one third of the European Union budget and are used to tackle regional disparities and support regional development through actions including developing infrastructure and telecommunications, developing human resources and, more recently, supporting research and development and innovation.
In the current programme period (2007-2013) more than €50 billion of Structural Fund money is reserved for research, technology and innovation.
The EARTO Secretariat is proposing to organise a one-day workshop in Brussels in early 2009 to give interested members an opportunity to learn more about the opportunities and to exchange experience of working with Structural Fund money.
Should you be interested to participate or should you wish to receive further information please contact Nina Baumeister.
The EIT is now launched and its Governing Board appointed. During the coming weeks, the first operational decisions will be taken about how the EIT will function and what areas of research it will focus on.
Critical meetings of the EIT Governing Board are planned for early December 2008 and mid-February 2009. The first of these meetings will begin a discussion about operational management of the EIT, its research areas, evaluation and selection procedures for its programmes ("Knowledge and Innovation Communities"), and IPR rules. The February meeting will take corresponding decisions.
Between these two meetings, i.e. in mid-January 2009, EARTO proposes to organise a one-day meeting for interested members. The objectives of this meeting are to share our information about what is being discussed in the EIT Governing Board and, where appropriate, to formulate recommendations for transmittal to the EIT Governing Board.
For more information please contact Mikael Kekkonen.
EARTO member HLP Développement of France is planning to bid for an INCO project designed to raise awareness in Europe of opportunities for EU research organisations to participate in R&D opportunities in Brazil, funded through public or private organisations.
EARTO has been invited to participate in the project as the principal vector for disseminating the participation opportunities in Europe.
For more information please contact Christopher John Hull.
This service gives EARTO members a simple-to-use tool for comparing how well they are doing in FP7 compared with other RTOs. It is a benchmarking database in which you record the numbers of proposals you have submitted (or in which you are a participant), how many have passed the evaluation threshold, and how many have been accepted for funding. You can make comparisons with other RTOs accoring to size category and in different FP7 thematic priority areas. Submitted data are treated confidentially and are presented anonymously.
Several RTOs have recently updated or provided data for the first time.
You can access the data via the Members Area.
For further information, please contact Nina Baumeister.
EARTO gives space in this newsletter to members who would like to publish their job vacancies. Please contact Nina Baumeister.
November 8 - 9, 2010
ESWIRP first workshop, Cologne, Germany
October 27, 2010
EARTO Innovation Prize - ceremony
October 11 - 15, 2010
2nd European Innovation Summit
September 23, 2010
DESCA Consultation Group Meeting
September 22, 2010
DESCA Core Meeting
September 16, 2010
EARTO Communication Task Force, Brussels
September 15, 2010
EARTO Innovation Prize Jury Meeting, Brussels
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The auditors listed have demonstrated to the Finance Helpdesk...
Setting the ICT research agenda for the next decade
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R&D investment by EU companies has increased by 8.8% compared to the increased R&D investment by US companies of 8.6%, according to the 2008 edition of the European Commission's annual Industrial R&D...
On 14th October, the European Union and European Industry announce plans to make fuel cells and hydrogen one of Europe's leading new strategic energy technologies of the future. Fuel cells, as an...
On 7 October, the European Research Council (ERC) presented a selection of its first starting grant winners at a meeting in Paris, France, and reflected on its successes and challenges over the past...
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The European Research Council (ERC) house announced the first successful candidates who submitted proposals for the Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) domain which had a deadline of 18 March 2008....
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The EARTO meeting room is available to members for meetings of 12 (14 absolute maximum), including light refreshments (coffee, tea, etc.) and the use of a projector, at €250 per day. Lunch arrangements are extra.
Members needing a larger meeting room are welcome to contact the Secretariat for assistance.
For further information, please contact Sylvia Lopomo at the EARTO Secretariat: +32-2-5028698.
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